Police search leads to 2-hour lockdown at Lakewood schools

LAKEWOOD — A man who crashed a car and ran onto school grounds early Thursday morning caused the Lakewood School District to close all five of its campuses.

Lakewood is an unusual district geographically. Four of its five schools are on contiguous ground and the fifth, Cougar Creek Elementary, is just down the street from Lakewood High School.

The lockdown lasted more than two hours at the high school and led to disruption in bus service for elementary students.

Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies aided by local police searched each of the campuses using dogs trained in tracking suspects.

“They did a complete surveillance and search throughout the district,” Superintendent Dennis Haddock said.

The lockdown affected the district’s 2,200 students in one way or another.

High school students arriving on campus were quickly escorted inside, but did not go from class to class until the lockdown was lifted.

The school district said families of elementary school students were sent alerts about the delay and were told to keep their children home until it was safe.

A deputy sheriff was headed in the opposite direction of the suspect’s car. When he thought it might be a stolen vehicle, he turned around and the driver sped off. The man crashed near the school grounds, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said. He ran onto school land near the bus barn around 7 a.m.